[9] The day began with a breakaway involving Javier Aramendia, Josef Benetseder, and Hervé Duclos-Lassalle, though their maximum advantage over the peloton was only 2'30".
The three were caught with 25 km left to race, at which point Tony Martin launched a solo escape that got him over the first category climb before the finish in first position, giving him the lead in the mountains classification and its pink jersey.
Martin was himself caught with 6 km to race as the teams of the sprinters worked to get the field together for a mass sprint finish.
The sprint was so close between Bernhard Eisel, Gerald Ciolek, and Óscar Freire that even the riders themselves were unsure which of them had won.
A bunched sprint was the finish, with Mark Cavendish winning after a successful leadout from Bernhard Eisel, Tony Martin, and George Hincapie.
[13] 16 June 2009 – Biasca to Stäfa, 197 km (122 mi) This was a mountainous course, which is marked by the outside-categorization climb of Tremola coming almost immediately.
There was also a second-category climb later on in the course, the descent from which left close to 40 km of flat racing prior the stage conclusion.
The best-placed man in the group was Columbia–High Road's Tony Martin, who began the day 34 seconds behind race leader Fabian Cancellara.
Martin, however, was unable to make the second selection of the day, as 9 of the 26 came clear and wound up contesting the stage together, while the other 17 returned to the peloton.
[15] 17 June 2009 – Stäfa to Serfaus (Austria), 202 km (126 mi) This was considered the queen stage of the 2009 Tour de Suisse.
Fifteen riders were indeed together for a sprint finish, won by Michael Albasini as he edged out countryman Fabian Cancellara at the line.
[20] After several unsuccessful breakaway efforts, José Joaquín Rojas, Marcus Burghardt, and Gerald Ciolek succeeded in their escape attempt.
Damien Gaudin joined them after a lengthy solo chase, and the four were together as a group for much of the stage, gaining a maximum advantage of six minutes by the 130 km mark.
Maxime Monfort drove the yellow jersey group to a pace that allowed Kim Kirchen to attack next and catch Kreuziger in the stage's final meters for the win.
[22] This stage saw another four-man escape group, Marcel Wyss, Pavel Brutt, Lars Boom, and Hervé Duclos-Lassalle.
Team Saxo Bank drove the peloton, to protect Fabian Cancellara from attacks, chiefly from the Liquigas duo of Roman Kreuziger and Oliver Zaugg.
In the final kilometer, mountains classification leader Tony Martin and Damiano Cunego attacked and got a small gap over the yellow jersey group, with Martin holding off Cunego in the sprint to give Team Columbia–High Road its sixth stage win in this Tour de Suisse.
[23] 21 June 2009 – Bern, 39 km (24 mi) (ITT) The course for the final individual time trial was gently undulating, without any categorized climbs.
Cancellara wound up as Tour de Suisse champion by over two minutes, after trailing coming into the final day.